Child and Forced Labor Lists and Reports Begin Annual Review Process

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg Trade Report

The Department of Labor’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs is requesting comments and information no later than Jan. 4, 2016, on certain documents regarding child labor and forced labor in foreign countries.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2013 requires ILAB to submit to Congress no later than Dec. 1, 2014, and every two years thereafter a list of foreign-made goods that it has reason to believe are produced by child and/or forced labor in violation of international standards. ILAB is also required to take steps to ensure that the goods on this list are not imported into the U.S. if they are made with forced or child labor, including working with producers to help set standards to eliminate the use of such labor. The most recent list can be found here.

Executive Order 13126 prohibits federal agencies from acquiring goods produced by forced or indentured child labor, and the DOL maintains a list of products that it has a reasonable basis to believe might have been mined, produced or manufactured with forced or indentured child labor. Federal contractors who supply the products on this list must certify that they have made a good faith effort to determine whether forced or indentured child labor was used to mine, produce or manufacture them and that, on the basis of those efforts, they are unaware of any such use of child labor. The most recent EO 13126 list is available here.

Under the Trade and Development Act of 2000, one of the criteria for eligibility for trade benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences, the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act and the African Growth and Opportunity Act is the beneficiary country’s implementation of its international commitments to eliminate the worst forms of child labor. The DOL evaluates this factor in an annual report, and the most recent report is available here.

ILAB is now requesting comments and information to maintain and update the TVPRA and EO lists, update the findings and suggestions for government action for countries reviewed in the TDA report, and assess each country's advancement toward eliminating the worst forms of child labor. ILAB will generally consider sources with dates up to five years old (i.e., data not older than Jan. 1, 2011).